I've
often told friends that if I could solve one of the following three issues
then I could become passable in nearly any situation: 1) fix my height,
2) fix my nose, and 3) fix my voice. I have zero control over the first
item, and the expense and explaining that would be involved in item
number two makes it almost impossible as well. And so I've always been
stuck with item three...my voice. Knowing this, I've tried numerous times to
generate a plausible female voice, but such attempts have always failed
and left me rather frustrated.

My usual routine was to search on YouTube for tutorials on how to obtain
a more feminine voice, and despite the number of wonderful tutorials out
there, I could never achieve a voice that was passable and acceptable to
me. Due to my numerous failed efforts in obtaining a voice, I had all
but given up, but two things inspired me this summer to once again make
an attempt to find my female voice.

The first item was my determination to get a pedicure as a girl. I've
had so many wonderful girlfriends encourage me over the years to get a
pedicure en femme, but I've always hesitated because I knew that a lot
of conversation would be involved, and so this summer, I felt determined
to find a voice that was passable enough to allow me to get a pedicure
and carry on a conversation as a plausible woman.

The second item that inspired me this summer was the movie Some Like It
Hot that features Marilyn Monroe in the lead. She is joined by co-stars
Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, who are forced to pose as women in order to
get away from the mob chasing them. I stumbled upon the movie as I was
channel surfing, and as I watched, I marveled at how Tony Curtis and
Jack Lemmon seemed to produce female voices so naturally. Then there's
Robin Williams and his performance in Mrs. Doubtfire or
Dustin Hoffman
in his role as Tootsie. It occurred to me that these actors were all
able to obtain a passable female voice through some means, and so I was
determined to find that means for myself.

That led me back to YouTube where I stumbled across clips that featured
professional voice coaches (women) coaching other women on how to talk
in a lower voice. Talking in a lower voice was something that I didn't
need, but I clicked on the clips anyway and listened to their
instructions, and the advice that they gave their target audience was
essentially the same advice that I needed in order to change my voice:
basically, learn how to breathe and use humming exercises to
strengthen your vocal cords.

Essentially, a person needs to strengthen their vocal cords in the
desired range before they can start speaking in that range, and so the
voice coaches listed various exercises that a person could do in order
to strengthen their vocal cords and adapt to a new range. It also makes
sense that the previous male actors that I listed all worked with voice
coaches in order to develop their feminine voices, and so this was the
breakthrough that I needed to give me something else to try in an
attempt to achieve my feminine voice. I spent a few hours doing the
exercises recommended by the professional voice coaches and was amazed
when a new voice began to emerge from my throat that actually sounded
passable. The voice you will hear is not perfect; but I do think
it's passable, and it's enabled me to enjoy outings this summer that I
could only dream of doing previously.

It was such a fun breakthrough for me that I decided to put on one of my
best dresses and create a video of myself explaining how I developed a
somewhat passable female voice. There were multiple YouTube tutorials
that I referenced, and so I won't list them here, but my advice is
to search YouTube for clips of professional voice coaches who don't
necessarily cater to transgender people; rather, they teach basic
exercises of what one must do in order to change their voice...for the
better. Rather than type the same things that I say in the video, I'll
let this new YouTube clip tell the rest of my story...and then some as I
get a bit chatty, which actually forced me to edit the video down to
under 15 minutes. :) If this video can help even one girl
out there find her voice as well, then it will have all been worth it.
Good luck, girls!!